Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
I thought the best way to report what Bonhoeffer meant by the need for a religionless Christianity in this world come of age would to be to use an outline he himself provides. At one point in the Letters, he reports he wants to write one more book, no longer than 100 pages with three […]
My primary goal when I started rereading the Letters was to examine what Bonhoeffer means about the need for a religionless Christianity in our world come of age. He repeatedly claims that this demands brutal honesty in reading the scriptures and analyzing our society. It’s obvious he thought his two years in prison forced him […]
Bonhoeffer’s arrest prevented him from finishing what was meant to be his greatest work. Back in seminary, I rather hurriedly read what we have of the Ethics as an academic study and was unimpressed. I reread it in the past few days as a historical statement and found much to ponder and admire. In fact, […]
I first read The Cost of Discipleship my first year in divinity school when a classmate, Gene Outka, who went on to teach ethics at Yale, recommended it as something every Lutheran pastor should read. It was good advice. Bonhoeffer laments that the Church has made Luther’s justification by grace through faith into a doctrine […]
When Paul suggested we do something on a Lutheran theologian and mentioned Dietrich Bonhoeffer, my ears went up. A number of my other friends have named him recently when discussing how the church should relate to government activities they think are unchristian. Lutherans have special problems, because Luther’s two kingdoms theory makes obeying the ruling authorities […]
As I wrote this series on the theology that informs Francis’ papacy, I became more cognizant of the opposition that has risen against him. I knew it was there, but did not comprehend how deep it ran in certain groups or the strategy these used in attacking him. In closing this series, I want to […]
My plan was to spend the summer casually examining Pope Francis’ theology. It seemed an easy assignment, simply posting summaries of readings I have been wanting to tackle. Those hopes for some quiet academic study quickly went up in flames. Some respondents vociferously chided me for passing indifferently over life-and-death issues. Their chief argument was […]
As just about every US citizen is discussing the mass murders, I find it helpful to see them as a new form of terrorism found in our technological society. Placing the killings in this context gives me a realistic perspective for engaging in the gun control, mental illness, and Christian teaching debates swirling around us. […]
Mark, perhaps our only economist, suggests our present problems have more to do with sinful human nature and abusive political power than economic theory. While reading his comments,I realized John, a model in sustainable agriculture, has been saying pretty much the same thing. For that matter, most of the comments can be read this way. […]
Last week, I claimed that Christians should always be prophetically critiquing the economic systems in which they find themselves, primarily asking if these protect the weak. I also suggested the form of global capitalism presently being practiced in our society is found wanting in this regard. It is not that people have grown more greedy, […]
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